


In Which Some Stuff Happens

by prince_guinevere



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Happy Birthday Elena, Hogwarts Eighth Year, I'm sorry there isn't much Luna in this, Multi, Part 1 of 3, Triwizard Tournament
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 07:33:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 15,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1258156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prince_guinevere/pseuds/prince_guinevere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So Voldemort has been defeated, but what happens next? Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville are back at school, but Harry's gone straight into Auror training, and Luna's travelling the world! The Triwizard Tournament comes back, a little different this time, but who's going to win? And are these relationships really happy ever after, or is it more complicated than that?</p>
<p>(Part 1 of 3. Will eventually be epilogue-compliant - in a way.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a birthday fic for theedgeofnight, who can be found on tumblr. A lot of it was written during nanowrimo last year, which is why it's a little bit weird but whatever. I hope you enjoy it, darling!

Harry settled himself into one of the chairs by the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, and put his Firebolt down beside him. Technically he wasn’t supposed to be there, but no one would dare turn in the Chosen One, Defeater of Voldemort. Besides, the chances of the Headmistress throwing him out were hardly high anyway.

Ron shut the window through which Harry had flown, and he and Neville sat down as well. Hermione was due back from the library any minute, and Ginny would be back from Prefect duties sometime soon as well. Harry leaned forward.

‘So,’ he whispered conspiratorially, ‘admit it. Did you put your names in the Triwizard Cup last night?’

‘Of course,’ Neville said.

‘Of course not,’ Ron said at the same time. They looked at each other; Ron shrugged.

‘If I get chosen, then I’m the best person for the job,’ Neville explained. ‘And if I’m the best person for the job, then I want to do it.’

‘You Hufflepuff,’ Ron said teasingly. ‘I reckon it would be too much work for me, on top of NEWTs. And Hermione’s already made me start studying, for all we’re only two weeks into the year.’

‘Listen to Hermione,’ Harry suggested, ‘because the Auror program is tough. You’ll need good results for them to even think about letting you in.’

‘Yeah,’ said Neville, ‘not everyone can just be invited in without even being tested like Mr Potter here.’

Harry was saved from having to defend himself by the arrival of Hermione, marked by the thump of a dropped book bag and the involuntary noise you make when someone hugs you quite hard.

‘Hermione, you saw me last week!’ Harry said, when he was finally able to breathe again.

‘It was eleven days ago,’ Hermione said. ‘And in that time, I haven’t missed a minute of class, haven’t lost any House points, and haven’t put my life in mortal peril. I miss you, Harry.’

‘I miss you too,’ Harry said, ‘all of you. But we have to grow up and move on to new things, and Auror training is shaping up to be really awesome. I’m not sorry I didn’t come back.’

‘I’m sorry you didn’t come back,’ said a new voice. Ginny crossed the Common Room, kissed Harry on the cheek, and sat down beside her brother. ‘And I know what you’re about to ask. Yes, I did put my name in the Triwizard Cup. I expect Neville will get it, but why not try?’

‘Don’t sell yourself short,’ Hermione said. ‘You both did really well last year, leading the DA without us and everything.’

‘You have beaten me in a fair duel, Ginny,’ Neville pointed out, ‘and the only other person I know who can say that is Harry.’

Ginny shrugged, then jumped as an owl tapped on the window behind her. The envelope it held, addressed to her, turned out upon enlarging to be full of Muggle polaroid photos. She passed them round. Many of them depicted a thin-faced, dark-skinned, elderly man, who was invariably smiling and holding things up to the camera; a handful of mice, a compass, a baby dragon. The others were of Luna, with various animals in the background. Ginny unfolded the accompanying letter.

‘We made it to Amsterdam!’ she read. ‘We’ve been visiting their International Wizarding Zoo and everything here is amazing, we’ve been taking lots of pictures. Newt is brilliant and seems to know even more than I do about mooncalves and nargles. We are friends already. Next stop, Berlin, to pick up his grandson Rolf. He’s apparently a Snorkack enthusiast too! Then on to Sweden, where we start our hunt proper!

‘Please pass this on to the others; I wasn’t sure who to send it to since I didn’t know who else had decided to go back to school. Love, Luna.’

‘I’m so glad she’s happy,’ Hermione said suddenly, and the others agreed.

They talked some more, Luna’s photos between them. After everything they’d been through, it was only together that they could really relax, knowing what to say to each other; how to avoid each other’s triggers.

Harry looked across at Neville, whose gaze was drawn again and again to Luna’s photos. Since Harry himself was back with Ginny again, and Hermione and Ron were dating, he had almost expected that Neville and Luna would get together, so they could all neatly slot into adult lives together. But that had never been a possibility, apparently. In fact, Luna and Ginny had been something of a thing during the last year, while Harry had been gone. He had been a little shocked to find that out, but it clearly hadn’t been serious. After all, Luna was away, living her life, and he and Ginny were here living theirs. So the girls had slept together, well, he’d kissed Ron after they’d destroyed the locket. War did strange things to the heart, made you consider more carefully just who you wanted to spend your time with.

And there was no better company to be in, Harry thought, than those around him now.


	2. Chapter Two

The next Friday night Harry was at Hogwarts again, but this time he was not trespassing. He filed into the Great Hall after Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic, and sat at the extended staff table beside him. Headmistress McGonagall stood up, and the students of three schools turned to look at her.

‘Welcome, all of you. Tonight, the Triwizard Cup will choose its Champions.’ She waited for the excited murmur to quiet. ‘Now,’ and she threw an apologetic glance towards Harry, ‘as we all know, the last Triwizard Tournament was a catalyst for the renewal of a war, a war which has now been won. So, in honour of Harry Potter, the Defeater, we shall evermore have two Champions from each school.’

This time the noise was harder to supress, and indeed the Hall was not truly silent again until the large Cup glowed blue, and a single parchment slip flew from it into McGonagall’s waiting hand.

‘The first Champion for Beauxbatons,’ she read, ‘is Christophe Cartier!’

There was applause, and the boy walked proudly through the Hall and into the anteroom. After a pause, the Cup chose again.

‘The second Champion for Beauxbatons is Gabrielle Delacour!’

More applause, and the part-Veela girl soaked up the attention as she made her way through the sea of students.

‘The first Champion for Durmstrang is Maria Handel!’

‘The second Champion for Durmstrang is Alexandria Handel!’

These two announcements came close together, and the two girls were at once seen to be twins; the latter almost a reflection of the former, moving like her shadow. They seemed unaware of the noise around them, and acknowledged only their own Headmaster and Hogwarts’ Headmistress on their way to the antechamber.

The clapping stopped abruptly as the Cup glowed again. A few students looked to their Headmistress; most turned to watch the end of the Gryffindor table, where Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny sat together. Several last-minute bets were placed.

‘The first Champion for Hogwarts,’ Headmistress McGonagall read, ‘is Ginevra Weasley.’

‘I knew it!’ said a voice loudly; judging by the colour he was turning, it had been Ron. He hugged his sister, and the other two congratulated her as well, and indeed it took her such an age to reach the top of the Hall that she was still there to hear the last announcement.

‘The second Champion for Hogwarts is Neville Longbottom!’ And really, (the Headmistress rolled her eyes) who else did they expect it to be? Neville followed Ginny out of the Hall, stopping, as she had, to smile at Harry.

The other students were dismissed, and Harry, Kingsley and the three Headteachers went to speak with the Champions. The rules were little changed from how they had been four years ago, save that there were now four Tasks; two to be completed together, and two to be completed separately. Only the best three Champions would compete in the last task, and have a shot at the trophy.

Personally, Harry thought there was no way Hogwarts didn’t have it. His money might perhaps have been on Ginny, but if she didn’t win, Neville would. Not, of course, that he ought to bet on the Tournament. That wasn’t a thing respectable judges did. Nor was he planning to be at all biased in the judging, though he could tell that Durmstrang’s Headmaster Gregson had made no such resolve.

 

Ginny and Neville agreed that night to reinstate the training routine they had been using the year before. They would be working together in the First Task, a wholly unknown challenge that would take place in just a fortnight.

They would be ready.


	3. Chapter Three

Harry, in a show of non-bias, stayed away from the castle for the entirety of the two weeks. They all missed him, although oddly Ginny, who wrote much to Luna, was more content without him than Hermione.

‘I didn’t have him all last year,’ Ginny pointed out to the older woman. ‘Just because you’ve barely ever separated from him or Ron since your first year, doesn’t mean I’m not self-sufficient.’

Hermione blushed; for all her mother’s feminist teachings, she was still happier when leaning on someone else.

‘I love him, of course I do,’ Ginny continued, ‘but I don’t need him to be all over me. And he’d hardly like it if I was in everything he was doing either.’

‘I suppose not,’ Hermione allowed. Privately, she thought Harry might have liked his partner to be closer to him, but she was hardly going to criticise someone else’s relationship. Particularly not when her own was already beginning to show cracks.

But there was little time for romantic drama when the NEWTs preparation was already in full swing, the teachers even harsher than Ron and Hermione remembered.

 

The day of the First Task came quickly.

Ginny and Neville were the last two into the tent down by the lake. Harry was waiting for them, and Ginny resisted the urge to hug him. She took her place in the loose circle formed by the other Champions, between Neville and Gabrielle. Harry held out a small bag.

‘There are three stones here with the numbers one, two and three carved on them; this will be the order in which you will attempt the task. To make the challenge more fair, you will be told nothing of what you are about to face until one minute before you begin.’ He offered the bag to Maria, who drew the two, and then to Gabrielle, who drew the one.

Neville just shrugged when he saw Ginny’s three. As he knew well, after half a lifetime often struggling academically, a long wait before a test could be turned to an advantage with the right frame of mind.

He smiled warmly at Harry, and waited until the French Champions had been led out and the twins had chosen a wall to sit against before tugging Ginny over to stand by the opposite wall. She raised an eyebrow.

‘Shall we do this?’ she asked.

‘Let’s,’ he agreed, and without waiting for a response asked, ‘Stunner?’

‘Stunner and dodge it,’ Ginny returned. ‘Tantarella?’

‘Protego. Disillusionment?’

‘Modified cutting hex. Bat Bogey?’

‘Surrender,’ Neville joked. ‘No, um, Protego, counter curse. Cruciatus?’

‘Conjure stone or Apparate away. Opponent Apparates?’

‘Disillusion yourself.’ And so they continued for almost an hour, trading fighting problems and answers. Ginny had first gotten the idea from listening to Ron and Bill talk chess, and she, Neville and Luna had done these drills every night before bed, during the war.

They had just gotten to ‘They bring a giant?’ ‘My brothers’ grenades!’ when Harry opened the flap of the tent again, and escorted the two slightly stunned Durmstrang students out. They had been listening to the rapid-fire study session going on with a sense of mild horror, though they hoped it was hidden from their faces.

When they were eventually left alone, Neville and Ginny finally sat down to talk about the Task.

‘I’m thinking large creature of some sort, like Harry’s dragon,’ Neville said. Ginny agreed.

‘We don’t want to kill whatever it is, so it’s probably a retrieval job. Speed will be the thing.’

Neville searched his pockets, coming up with a handful of soil and a few packets of non-magical flower seeds.

‘So, I assume you’re thinking what I’m thinking?’ he asked. Luckily, she was.


	4. Chapter Four

‘Chimera,’ Harry told them without fanfare. He was quite confident that his girlfriend and one of his closest friends could win this. ‘Around its neck is a chain with two rings, which you need to retrieve. The rings and the chain are immune to magic. Points will be awarded for speed and skill, and deducted for injury. Good luck,’ he added. ‘You have one minute to confer.’

After that minute, they were let into the arena. It was similar to the one Harry had fought a dragon in four years ago, with the exception of the large chimera at the other end, watching them in a curious fashion. From the entrance, Ginny could just make out the glint of silver that was their prize.

Neville ignored the beast. Calmly, he climbed the nearest boulder, drawing the chimera’s attention but not threatening it. He took the soil from his pocket, and scattered it in front of him. Then he pulled out the seeds, and planted a few, touching his wand to the soil afterwards. Within a few moments the shoots were already pushing their way through the thin layer of soil, and fewer than five minutes later three sunflowers stood taller than his head.

The chimera was as interested as the rest of his audience, if slightly less impressed and much less confused. It walked carefully towards Neville, stopping when it was maybe halfway across the arena. Neville reached up, took the head from one of the sunflowers, and threw it gently towards the animal, who bent down to sniff it before deciding that it was not, after all, food.

Neville threw the second one, and the chimera bent down to it again. Harry, Hermione and Ron broke into nearly simultaneous smiles as they saw what everyone else missed.

Neville reached for the third sunflower.

Before he could throw it, Ginny’s voice muttered a counter to her Disillusionment spell, and she appeared beside him. Silver shone in her right hand, so Neville took her left and they walked quickly away from the chimera before it could discover its loss. A pair of heavily armoured wizards came in with a drugged steak, while the Champions were led up to the box where the judges had been watching.

‘Well,’ said Headmistress McGonagall, through a Sonourous charm, ‘we saw some impressive magic there. A flawless Disillusionment Charm by Miss Weasley, and some excellent growth charms by Mr Longbottom. Not to mention the remarkable strategy. Voting, then? I find I must give the Hogwarts Champions nine out of ten.’

Madame Maxime rose next. ‘I have always tried to be fair and honest,’ she said, ‘and I must admit that I could hardly have done better myself if faced with this task. I give the Hogwarts Champions ten out of ten.’

Headmaster Gregson stood then, looking disgruntled at the applause coming from students of all three schools. He gave eight, with no reasoning attached, and Kingsley immediately gave them ten for ‘brilliant tactics’.

Harry went last. ‘An excellent Task, an excellent solution,’ he said. ‘And yet I think we could see better – nine out of ten for me also.’

The audience’s cheer rose, and McGonagall announced that, with 46 points, Ginny and Neville were in first place.

 

‘How did the others do?’ was the first thing they wanted to know, when they met up with Ron and Hermione again. Harry, unfortunately, had to attend some Tournament-related meeting – and this looked like the start of a pattern for the year.

‘Not as well as you, that’s for sure,’ said a grinning Ron.

‘The Durmstrang twins did some sort of combined casting thing,’ Hermione said. ‘It was impressive and rather powerful, but they used a lot of Stunners and they hurt the chimera a bit. They weren’t as fast as you either. Still, they got 41 points for it.’

‘But the other two can’t seem to get along,’ Ron said. ‘They kept telling each other what to do, arguing almost, and all the time this bloody great beast’s looking at them like it can’t decide who to eat first – anyway, in the end Gabrielle gets it with her veela thing and Christophe comes up with a powerful sleeping spell. 34 points, too many in my opinion.’


	5. Chapter Five

Dear Neville,

Congratulations! I knew you’d win. Newt got hold of a copy of the Prophet and we read all about it – I thought your idea was ingenious. Of course, it’s a well-known fact that chimeras are only attracted to sunflowers under moonlight, but I suppose you don’t want to cross-breed them anyway in an uncontrolled environment. What are you doing for Herbology extra credit this year?

You would not believe how adorable wild Puffskiens are! Nothing like the domesticated ones, these are altogether more pink. Also, we think possibly fluent in sign language. Rolf has been trying to teach them a form we recognise, but so far nothing except the word “carrot” has stuck. He’s optimistic, though. I like that about him. I’ve quite made up my mind that Daddy would have liked him too.

Oh, well. Life goes on. Don’t let the Tournament distract you from getting good grades. The heliopaths might be freed from the Ministry’s control any day now, and it’s rumoured they don’t like academic under-achievers.

love from Luna

 

Dear Hermione,

What’s it like not being Prefect? Relaxing, I imagine. And with Harry being off at other things, you must only have two people’s schedules to sort out! But genuinely, if you do have some free time on your hands, we have a little conundrum on ours. I’ve enclosed some photos of the rare, wild pink Puffskiens making odd gestures – we think it may be a form of sign language. Rolf says it isn’t any of the ones that he knows. Newt thinks this tribe might have migrated here from Egypt, if that helps. Thank you.

Have you decided yet between Healing and a career in the Ministry? I know which one I think you should go for, but I don’t want to offer my advice unless you want it. And I’m sure you could do anything if you set your mind to it, anyway. You were born under a bright star, Hermione.

love from Luna

 

Dear Ron,

I absolutely need your help. Newt and Rolf play chess in the evenings and they are both extremely awesomely good. I’d like to understand how to play, but I fear that if I ask them, they will suspect I have been infested with Nargles. I don’t want Rolf to think I’ve been infested with Nargles! Can you explain the rules of chess to me? Perhaps you have a book?

I like books, although so far all the books I’ve tried have been less than forthcoming about Crumple Horned Snorkacks. Newt promises to rectify this problem if we find the animals before the next revision of his book is due. (We have four years.)

You’ll have finished the Auror training program by then. Is that still what you want to do? Harry’s stories haven’t put you off? I must say, I think you’ll be brilliant at it. You just have to get through NEWTs first. Good luck!

love from Luna

 

Dear Harry,

How’s the Auror training program going? I’ve heard all about your bruises from Ginny… I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.

Do you wish sometimes that you’d gone back to Hogwarts with the others? I do, a little, even though I wouldn’t trade what I’m doing now for the world. I suppose it’s just a lingering pressure to be normal – not that you or I have ever managed that.

I’m having so much fun now though. We’re trying to communicate with a tribe of Puffskiens right now, and then after the Equinox we’re planning to move on with our Snorkack hunt. It’s so brilliant being around Newt and Rolf; they care so much about the same things I do.

Sometimes there are things you don’t realise are missing from your life until you find them.

Good luck with your Auror training, and with judging the Tournament. Don’t tell Ginny or Neville, in case I can’t, but I’m hoping to get back to England in time to watch the Final Task. I hope they’ll both be in it.

love from Luna

 

Dear Ginny,

Congratulations! I read about your Task in the Prophet and it was brilliant. Although, Newt now wants to drop the work we’re doing now on Puffskiens and test whether chimeras are less sensitive to the presence of redheads than wizards and witches with other hair colours. It’s a shame none of us three have red hair, though I think it would look odd on Newt and Rolf. And I like that I look like my mother, so perhaps it’s for the best. In any case, we are busy with the Puffskiens, who may or may not know sign language, and since they probably migrate we can’t afford to leave them until after the Equinox anyway.

But how are you? Has your participation in the Tournament made you rethink wanting to have been Head Girl? I assume they didn’t take your Prefect position? That’s still a lot of responsibility. I have no idea why you’re asking me to help with Divination, but anyway my Daddy always said that if you dream about nettles it means you’re not supposed to be doing something that you are doing. And phoenixes are a lot like nettles, dream-wise, I should think.

I’ve included another set of photos – Newt loves the camera! Please share them around.

love from Luna


	6. Chapter Six

The papers were full of current politics, at least in the gaps between the Tournament Tasks, but Harry had the inside scoop, and shared his information with the others in short bursts.

‘Kingsley doesn’t enjoy being Minister; he’d much rather go back to his old job as Head Auror,’ he revealed once. Another time he admitted that he had secretly been behind Delores Umbridge’s rather public sacking over the summer. But other than these interesting conversation starters, he was beginning to be somewhat reserved when the five of them were all together. In fact, there was a new tension in the air, difficult to define, and Harry in particular seemed to be spending his time with the others one-on-one. He spent time duelling or flying with Ron, talking or researching in the library with Hermione, out in the greenhouses or practising with Neville, and flying with Ginny. He had also taken his girlfriend out on a few dates, organised mainly by Dobby in empty rooms of the castle since it would have been unprofessional for a judge to be taking one of the Champions out to dinner in Hogsmeade.

His friends, as they so often did, followed his lead, and began to split up more. Now that the war was over, and having someone to watch your back was no longer a life-saving necessity, each of them were rediscovering the value of just being alone, whether they were reading or planning Quidditch matches or weeding a vegetable patch. They also began to meet up in twos, noticeable in particular when Neville and Ginny got together to discuss the Tournament.

Harry ‘could neither confirm nor deny’ whether the rings Ginny had taken would provide a clue to the Second Task, so she and Neville spent a lot of time in the library, trying to make sense of the patterns and scratches on the rings. Hermione appeared to be trying to make the library her second home anyway, so she spent her free time helping.

This left Ron, who thought he’d be little help, to entertain Harry, who for obvious reasons couldn’t help. They spent their weekends flying, mostly. Ron was Quidditch Captain again, and they talked about game strategy, and Harry helped out with the new Seeker, a tiny third-year girl with eagle eyes but comparatively poor flying ability.

When it was too dark to see, or raining heavily, the two men holed up inside an empty classroom and Harry taught Ron Auror moves. In between, they seemed to always end up talking about relationships.

‘There just seems to be something missing, now that we’re not fighting for our lives any more,’ Ron explained. ‘It’s selfish to think that, I know, because we’re lucky to both have made it through, and my nightmares have nothing on Neville’s, even, but now the adrenaline’s gone a little from our lives there’s just not enough holding us together.’

‘Have you talked to Hermione about this?’ Harry asked. He sympathised; even now that there were fewer demands on their time, he and Ginny still weren’t as close as he’d hoped they would become.

‘Yeah, of course I have. Hermione’s got a Muggle saying, erm, problem discussed is problem halved, or something. So we’ve talked a bit but we’re not really sure what we can do. We love each other, you know. We want to make this work.’

‘I know you do,’ said Harry, thinking about Hermione’s determination when faced with problems. ‘You’ll get there.’

Ginny, Neville and Hermione arrived at the door then, the latter folding away the Marauder’s Map, on loan from Harry for the year, and the conversation was dropped in favour of other talk.


	7. Chapter Seven

‘Okay, listen up,’ Harry said. ‘Congratulations on all passing the first task, pretty well, by the way. Now, the second will take place in a few months, and it is a test of your problem solving ability. There will be twelve connecting rooms, laid out in a three by four rectangle, and your challenge will be to get from the bottom to the top. You can go through just four rooms, or you can tackle all twelve. Every room will contain a different task, perhaps a logic puzzle or a physical challenge. When you enter the room a timer will start, and when you acquire the key, which will be your reward for completing the room, the timer will stop. If it is still on positive seconds remaining, you will gain that many task points, however if you are on negative seconds, you will lose that many task points. The key will then open any of the doors, except the one you came through, and you will then begin again with the next room. Some of the timers will be designed to gain you points, others to lose. Oh, and one last thing – your wands will be taken from you. This is a test of your non-magical abilities. Any questions?’

Ginny raised her hand.

‘Is there anything we should do between now and then to prepare?’ she asked.

‘I can’t tell you anything,’ Harry said helpfully. ‘You’ll be facing physical challenges and mental problems, so… prepare. Yes, Maria?’

‘You mentioned ‘task points’, I think? Are these different to Tournament points?’

‘Ah, yes, I forgot that bit. They are different, because Tournament wise you can only receive 50 points maximum for this Second Task. So, when you’ve all finished the other judges and I will look at your scores, and look at your performance, and award Tournament points out of 50. The task points will dictate a first, second and third, but within that it is up to our discretion. So style is important as well as speed.’

Gabrielle frowned.

‘If you will take our wands off us, may we not take anything magical in?’ she asked.

‘Nothing magical ought to be able to help you,’ Harry told them, ‘but we will be asking that you leave all magical items behind, yes. Just wear casual clothes that are easy to move in, and you won’t need anything else. And if that’s all the questions, good luck! I look forward to seeing what you all do in the next Task!’

The other four Champions left to celebrate with their schools, leaving Neville and Ginny with Harry.

‘Sorry, I’m in yet another meeting tonight,’ he told them, ‘but I promise I’ll be around over Christmas.’


	8. Chapter Eight

‘Hermione?’

Hermione glanced around; the Common Room was empty. The announcement had been made that morning – ten galleons said Ron wanted what she thought he did.

‘Hermione, um. I think you know what I’m going to ask, so, will you?’

‘Will I what, Ron?’ Annoyed wouldn’t be the word Hermione would use to describe how she felt, just that… she wanted to hear the words. Ron, while excellent at so many things and the absolute love of her life, was not brilliant at using words.

‘Go to the Yule Ball with me. Will you, I mean? I’d like to go with you.’ Ten galleons to Hermione.

‘Okay. I will accompany you to the Yule Ball.’

She had considered making him wait, making him work for it, but she wasn’t inclined to play those sorts of games in a relationship. And in any case, the way Ron was kissing her more than made up for any satisfaction she may have missed out on. Those things that Ron is excellent at? Kissing is one of them.

‘Ginny said she was going with Neville, by the way,’ Hermione told her boyfriend, when they paused for breath, lying back on the couch. ‘Harry’s been told he can’t officially escort her, and Neville doesn’t have anyone he wants to take. I think it’s kind of sweet, even though neither of them are interested like that. They went together last time, remember?’

Ron looked at her seriously.

‘It’s very sweet,’ he said solemnly. ‘However, I don’t really want to think about my sister right now.’

And that was the end of verbal communications for a while.

 

The Christmas holidays began.

‘As older students,’ McGonagall had explained to them, ‘you are being given our trust. Instead of asking which of you are staying for the whole three weeks, I will hang a signing sheet in each of the four Common Rooms, on which you may sign in and out of the castle over the holiday period. I imagine, for example, that many of you may wish to spend Christmas Day with your families, or return here for the Yule Ball.’

And so Hermione left for a quiet holiday with her parents, planning to return only for the night of the Ball. Ron and Ginny stayed, planning to go home only for Christmas. It was Neville who kept coming and going, as he used the new system to its fullest effect – well, apart from Harry.

Harry took gleeful joy in signing in on the sheet most days, and begun to appear at meals. The first time he had done so, with a borrowed Gryffindor tie around his neck, the students had gone wild. (The teachers just pretended not to notice.)

 

The Yule Ball came quickly.

‘Hurry up!’ Christophe complained to his date. ‘Your hair looks fine.’

‘I want it to look more than fine,’ said Serena in a low, accented voice. ‘I am the only girl here who is not a Champion – I want my hair to dazzle!’ She looked around at the others in the room; Neville and Ginny, who had agreed to escort each other to remove the hassle of dates, Maria and Alexandria and their equally silent boyfriends, and Gabrielle, with none other than Blaise Zabini on her arm. All of them avoided her eyes, embarrassed.

‘You look lovely, Serena,’ Gabrielle said at last. ‘Now, I think it is time for us to go in.’

She shared a look with Ginny as they lined up under McGonagall and Kingsley’s watchful eyes. The two girls had grown to be friendly acquaintances, if not truly friends, in the time since Bill and Fleur’s wedding. How long ago that seemed now.

In all honesty, the night of the Ball passed in something of a blur for Ginny. She shared the first dance with Neville, and he was just as capable and fun to dance with as he had been four years ago. After that, she danced mostly with Harry, and could not remember enjoying herself more since before her first year at Hogwarts, excepting maybe on the Quidditch pitch.

Ron and Hermione had a great time. The atmosphere of the place made it easy to forget the little arguments they’d been having recently and focus on the fact that they loved each other and genuinely enjoyed each other’s company.

And Neville, despite his lack of a date, danced every dance and was never short of someone to partner. It almost made him nostalgic for the days he’d thought he might someday want to date.


	9. Chapter Nine

‘Harry, mate, wake up! It’s Christmas!’

Ron jumped out of bed, narrowly avoiding stepping on his best friend. Since Harry was spending all of his time at the Auror training facility or at Hogwarts, judging the Tournament, he had had no time to sort out the Manor he now owned and which was, frankly, uninhabitable. Molly, of course, had offered him Ron’s room for the year, and he had gratefully accepted.

But just now, for the few days that Ron was home as well, it did admittedly mean that Harry was sleeping on the floor.

Ginny, Charlie, George and Angelina were already helping themselves to Molly’s lavish breakfast when Harry and Ron got downstairs, despite the early hour, and just as they sat down Molly came in through the back door, levitating a large pile of presents and followed by Bill and a heavily pregnant Fleur.

‘Where’s Dad?’ Bill asked, after the flurry of greetings and Christmas wished. ‘And isn’t Perce here?’

‘He owled, he’s coming over this afternoon with Penelope,’ Charlie supplied. ‘Think he might be planning to propose this morning, but don’t say anything just in case. And Dad’s around somewhere, you know what he’s like in the mornings.’

Harry found, as he always did, that after a short while with enough Weasleys in an enclosed space everything became one brilliant, long-running joke, and he was never without someone to talk to. He loved being around them.

There was no organisation around a Weasley Christmas Day. George and Angelina went to visit Angelina’s parents at some point, and Bill and Fleur went to see her family also. Percy showed up late in the afternoon, Penelope wearing the ring, and Harry made the appropriate noises along with everyone else.

And in between the family and the excesses of food, there were presents. Every so often, one or other of the Weasleys would drift into the living room (they couldn’t quite all sit in the living room at once, due to the large tree that had appeared there) and drift back out with an assortment of wrapped gifts. There were Weasley jumpers for everyone, and chocolate and books and potions ingredients and enough Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes products to set up a second shop. Harry had, on Hermione’s brilliant advice, gotten everyone Muggle presents, which made for some brilliant expressions of confusion.

 

All in all, he had a wonderful holiday, free at last from the fear that had hung over him for so long, and he was almost sorry when the school term started up again. But then it was soon time for the Second Task.


	10. Chapter Ten

For the order of the Second Task the Champions again drew tiles from a bag, and Christophe drew the one. He and Gabrielle positioned themselves before the first door, and Harry counted them down.

In they went, and they saw the first room. It was small, and in the centre a sunken board was empty, while beside it was a box. Inside the box were pieces of irregularly cut card.

‘A jigsaw puzzle!’ Gabrielle moaned in French. ‘But I hate them!’

‘Well get on with it anyway,’ Christophe told her, pulling the pieces out into the light and beginning to sort them. ‘We’ve got –’ glancing up at the wall, ‘a whole ten minutes, so we’d better come out with positive points here.’

They did, eventually, ending up with 72 task points as the key was revealed to them. Now they had a choice.

‘Left, or straight on?’ Gabrielle asked. ‘Me, I would go straight, because it has the fewest rooms.’

‘That… sounds like a good idea,’ Christophe said, just wanting to get through as soon as possible.

The second room they entered was divided into squares like a chessboard, though each of them was the same red colour. In the centre square, the key lay innocently. Beside the door they had entered by, there was a board hovering at waist height which showed the floor plan, and was covered in simple black shapes. There were five minutes on the clock. Gabrielle tried to step forward, but found that she couldn’t.

‘There’s some sort of forcefield,’ she told Christophe, who was studying the board. With a noise of surprise, he pressed two of the squares, whose shapes matched.

Two of the floor tiles glowed, and then turned green. Christophe kept going, ignoring Gabrielle’s pleas to be told what was going on, and in a few minutes a green path had opened up from where they were standing to the centre square, and from there to the door at the other side of the room.

‘Go,’ Christophe said, and they made it to the key with 10 seconds to spare.

‘Forward again?’ Gabrielle asked, and without waiting for an answer walked towards the door. She opened it, and stepped through. Then she screamed a little.

‘Rocks!’ Specifically, the long path to the key resembled the Muggle game dodgeball, with everything from pebbles to boulders larger than the Champions’ heads flying across the room.

They stood and stared for a moment.

‘There must be some way to disable the room –’ Christophe began.

‘No time – we’ve got twenty seconds!’ Gabrielle shrieked, and set off bravely. All the boulders somehow missed her, and it was with only a few scratches, and a nine-second time penalty, that she grabbed the key. Once she had it, the room did indeed stop, and Christophe was able to follow her to the door.

‘Whatever this room is,’ he said, ‘it’s the last one. So let’s just get it done as quickly as possible, okay?’

Without waiting for an answer, he reached past her and pulled the door open, and they stepped through.

The room was smaller than the others they had been through, and it contained a single table. Gabrielle walked over and picked up the single piece of parchment upon it, and groaned.

‘It’s a riddle,’ she said.

‘There’s twenty minutes on the timer,’ Christophe pointed out, optimistically.

Gabrielle handed him the riddle. It was printed in all three languages, and supposedly the answer, when spoken aloud, would reveal the key. Simple enough.

It took them more than twenty minutes, but they did eventually get there, and walked out to a task score of minus 58.


	11. Chapter Eleven

Next it was Ginny and Neville’s turn. They were wearing the rings they had taken from the chimera, for although they had figured out that there was a message there, they had been unable to translate it, except for the words ‘red’ and ‘yellow’.

Harry counted them down, and they entered the first room.

‘Jigsaw puzzle,’ Neville said shortly, and they got to work easily enough, finishing in under eight minutes. The key floated out from the completed picture, and Ginny grabbed it.

‘There are two doors out of here,’ she said, ‘so which one shall we take?’

Neville was examining them. ‘Have you seen the red patch here?’ he asked. ‘And look, on the other door there is a yellow patch.’

‘So one will be the way to go,’ Ginny said, ‘and that’s what the rings were trying to tell us. It ought to be yellow, surely?’

‘Red is straight ahead,’ Neville agreed, ‘so you’re probably right. Let’s go.’

Ginny unlocked the door, and in they went.

In this, larger, room, there was a rope ladder, leading up to a series of oddly angled monkey-bars, at the end of which was the key, stuck to the ceiling. Neville noted the time, five minutes, and reached at once for the ladder, then let go with a gasp. He tried again, as Ginny watched suspiciously.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘You try,’ he offered, so she did.

‘Oh! I’m blind!’ she said foolishly. ‘Okay, well that’s obviously the challenge. I’ll go up, and you can direct me when I get to the top. Four minutes left.’ And she scrambled up the rope, trusting Neville’s judgement. He did not disappoint.

‘Okay, first one’s angled towards your right hand,’ he said clearly, ‘second one is the opposite. Large gap before the third one, you’ll need to take your right hand and cross it over to the centre. Good. Fourth one to the left…’

With only ten negative seconds on the clock Ginny got the key, and found that her sight returned.

‘That wasn’t too hard,’ Neville said, as she climbed back down to stand beside him. ‘Yellow again? It means we’ll have done the whole bottom row.’

‘Go for it,’ Ginny said, and handed him the key. They went into the next room along.

It was (mostly) full of water. They stood on a small raised platform, and about two metres down they could see the floor. As they gaped, the platform begun to move in a random manner around the swimming pool-sized room.

The clock showed two minutes. Neville stripped his duelling robe off, followed by his trousers and shirt. Left only in boxers, he knelt and leant over the side.

‘Shout if you see the key,’ he told Ginny.

It was over a minute before they both saw it. Neville dived in, and the moment he touched it, the water began to drain away. Ginny took the key, and handed him his clothes.

‘I might wait for a moment; dry off a bit,’ he said. ‘But four seconds still, that’s not too bad. We’re on, what? One hundred fifty something seconds?’

‘About that,’ Ginny agreed. ‘Well, there’s only one door out of here, and it’s red. The door we came in has yellow beside it. I think we must have been wrong.’

‘Let’s try following red then,’ Neville said. ‘Just give me a moment to get dressed, and get my breath back. That water was cold.’

After a moment or two, they mentally prepared themselves for the next challenge room.

It was indeed much easier than diving for keys or swinging blind on the ceiling. A small ‘maze’, with cardboard walls barely up to their knees, had to be traversed to the centre, where the key lay waiting. With several minutes on the timer, the two of them almost doubled their task points just in that room.

There were two doors, one to the left and one to the front. The first was yellow, the second red.

‘We thought red, right?’ Neville checked. ‘That would take us to the third row, so – we’re halfway there?’

‘We thought red,’ Ginny confirmed.


	12. Chapter Twelve

The next room seemed absolutely filled with rope. It stretched at waist height from all four walls, and joined together in the centre of the room in a massive knot. In the middle of the knot, they could just make out the glint of a key. The timer read one minute.

‘Well?’ Neville asked, making for the knot as Ginny froze. ‘We’d better hurry, this stuff’s tight.’

‘Wait a minute, I’m thinking,’ Ginny said. ‘Hermione told me about this Muggle legend – a knot that couldn’t be untied. But how did they… oh!’

She sprinted across the room, having seen a knife hanging on the other wall.

‘Use this,’ she called, throwing it to Neville, who caught it expertly. He had the key in his hand within moments.

‘Gordian knot, that’s what it was called,’ she was saying, as he walked over to the door she was standing by. ‘Although, originally I think it was a sword.’

‘Would you like to complain to the makers of the task?’ Neville asked, as he looked at the door. ‘Hang on, this one’s yellow.’

‘Well spotted. You know, I’m having trouble keeping which way is up in my head. This is right then – centre room, second row down.’

‘I think so,’ Neville said. ‘I’ve been keeping track of the points to be honest; we’re on three hundred and eighteen.’

‘Let’s do this.’ And they unlocked the door into the next room.

On the table, dominating the small room, was a massive spinner, with at least fifty different pictures. One, glowing, was of a familiar silver key.

Two minutes. Ginny pushed the spinner experimentally, and she got a frog. Again; tree, fish, broomstick. Neville tried turning the spinner slowly, but it refused to move.

‘I guess this is just it,’ Ginny said, and spun again. Their two minutes were almost up before she managed to spin the key, and it descended from the ceiling.

‘Three hundred twenty six,’ Neville muttered. ‘Red is left, so forward. This could be the last room.’

‘I hope so – I’m knackered,’ Ginny said.

 

It was the last room. A series of large floating ladders, some vertical, some horizontal, some moving, filled the room, and the key was at the other end. Neville got there in a shocking three minutes dead, netting them another hundred and twenty points and leaving Ginny cheering. Of course, her cheers were nothing compared to the sound of the crowd once they had left the maze of rooms.

They went to sit with Ron and Hermione, who told them that Beauxbatons had done much worse than them, and sat back to watch the German team. Once the twins were inside the course, all the walls became invisible to the crowd, and Ginny gasped as she saw the room full of flying rocks.

‘I’m glad we didn’t have to do that,’ she said. ‘I’d be bruised all over!’

‘Oh, they’re illusions,’ Hermione reassured her. ‘Still scary, but no lasting damage.’

‘I’m worried about – is that a tightrope in the far corner room?’ Neville demanded.

‘You managed those ladders fine,’ Ron said, ‘how much harder could a tightrope have been?’

‘It’s harder to fall off a ladder,’ Ginny objected. ‘Neville particularly has this thing he does with his feet when he’s high up.’

‘Yes, alright,’ said Neville, for he was still a little uncomfortable with compliments. ‘But let’s watch how these two get on, alright?’

As it happened, the two women did seem to have figured out the message on the rings, though it was hard to tell as they did everything in near absolute silence. Still, they took the easy path, and came out with just shy of a hundred points more than Ginny and Neville had, to the elation of the crowd. The judges gave them 48 out of 50 Tournament points, almost perfect, and the Hogwarts total dropped Neville and Ginny into second place, after adding only 39 points.

 

‘But we find out what the next Task is tonight,’ Neville said, keeping optimistic. ‘And if we’re second, we still should get one of us into the Final, right?’

‘I’m still expecting you both there,’ Ron told them encouragingly.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

‘All right, gather round, Champions,’ Harry said; behind him, Kingsley Shacklebolt watched like a hawk. ‘The Third Task, as you know, is undertaken individually, and as such you will come out of it with different point totals. Those points will be added to those you have already collected, and only the three of you with the highest scores will be allowed into the fourth and final challenge. Okay? And now, the bit you don’t know. Your challenge will be… duelling!’

Ginny and Neville shot each other excited looks; Maria made a hastily-stifled noise of disappointment.

‘But what are the rules?’ Gabrielle asked, feeling herself at a disadvantage.

‘Sorry, Gabrielle. Okay, first, how the Task will work. Each of you will duel one another, spread over five days. On the first day, you will duel your partners. You will be allowed to watch each others’ duels on that day. On the next four days, you will have one duel each day, picked randomly, and you will not be allowed to see the other duels. Note that the spectators will be warned not to discuss them with you as well. This should keep the playing field more even. The loser of each duel will receive five points, so long as the judges feel that they made an effort, while the winner will receive between six and twenty five points from us. So far makes sense?’

‘Are there rules about what constitutes winning and losing?’ Ginny wanted to know.

‘All the usual International Duelling rules apply,’ Harry told her. ‘So that is, pretty much, one person in possession of two wands, or one person fully incapacitated from Stunners or other similar spells. There is a banned spell list here; note that Apparition and Portkeys are listed, as is all Transfiguration aimed at your opponent. Use of banned spells will result in a zero for all of your duels, which will pretty conclusively put you out of the running for top three. Don’t forget that only the top three of you will progress to the final Task. Any questions before I finish?’

None of the Champions had any questions, so Harry dropped the bombshell on them.

‘And the best till last – you’ll be duelling blind!’

‘What?!’ – ‘How?’ – ‘Why?’

‘Before you begin the duel, you and your opponent will be given a potion which removes your sight. The antidote to your potion will be in a small cauldron, on a table at the end of the duelling platform, behind your opponent. Samples of both the potion and the antidote will be freely dispensed to each of you, for practice purposes only, and you may receive them from your Headteacher only. Now are there any more questions?’

There were definitely not.

Neville and Ginny went straight to the room of Requirement.

‘So,’ Ginny said. ‘I suppose you are considering what I am?’

‘Staging it? I’d rather not, it doesn’t feel right,’ Neville said. ‘But we absolutely have to practice together. Blind-fighting isn’t something we did much of, last year.’

‘I’d rather not as well, but I wanted to be clear,’ Ginny explained. ‘And when you say we didn’t do much, how many hours a week did you put into the DA last year? Don’t tell me it was less than I did, because I won’t believe you. If you think we aren’t both getting into the Fourth Task now, I don’t know how else to convince you this is ours.’

Neville was suddenly caught up in her enthusiasm. ‘Did you see Maria and Alexandria’s faces? And I don’t think they go in for duelling at Beauxbatons.’

‘They definitely don’t,’ Ginny said, remembering Fleur and Bill’s rather public discussion about his cursebreaking work, and the risks he took – the only argument they’d ever had, according to Bill. Ginny had warmed to Fleur, especially since the announcement of her pregnancy, but still – the Veela was a bit hesitant about physical tasks. ‘We’ve got this.’


	14. Chapter Fourteen

Dear Luna

The Second Task was brilliant! We didn’t win, but it was so much fun. I understand Harry is sending you the Prophet, so I won’t bother to tear up my copy, or try and give you a detailed blow-by-blow of everything we did.

No, of course I don’t mind if you start dating Rolf – or if you don’t. I understand that you still care about me, and please believe that I still care about you very much, but I would never claim to have a say in your relationships just because we have been together in the past, just like I’m sure you would never try to get in between Harry and I. I’m sorry we didn’t negotiate boundaries last year before sleeping together, but what was happening just made some form of escapism necessary. I’m so glad I haven’t hurt our friendship. You’re one of the most important people in my life, Luna.

Sorry, getting all emotional now. I think I’m coming down from the high the Second Task has given me. Anyway, I hope you are alright and having lots of fun wherever you are. And good luck with Rolf and all that.

With love from Ginny

 

Dear Luna,

I’m enclosing the Prophet’s article on Ginny and Neville’s Second Task, since as of your letter last week you weren’t sure where you’d be moving to this week, and whether the papers would be international. I hope it’s a nice place, with lots – but not too much – of everything you’re looking for.

Don’t worry, you never get annoying. And it’s brilliant that you’re getting along so well with Rolf, so of course tell me as much as you like about him. He sounds like a wonderful man. I’m sure you would know if he didn’t like you, but in any case there’s no danger of that if he’s got even half the sense you say he has.

Hermione is better for advice, but if you want to ask me anything of course I will do my best to help you.

I miss you,

Harry

 

Dear Luna,

We’ve just found out what the Third Task is, and I must say despite the fact that we aren’t winning currently, Ginny and I are feeling quite confident that at least one of us will be in the top three, and therefore the final task. I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t be talking explicitly about the specifics, but let me just remind you of the “game” we used to play with the DA, the one Ginny tended to win. Do you remember the evening you and I drew eleven times in a row?

Anyway, enough of my obscure hinting and reminiscing. How are you? Animals doing all right? I hope I’m not reading between the lines too much, but it sounds to me like you and Rolf have a bit of a thing for each other. If you want my advice – go for it. He’d be a fool not to say yes to you, you’re amazing.

I’ll write again soon.

Neville


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Neville and Ginny practiced long and hard for the Third Task. A good half of the school knew about the Room of Requirement, after last year, but it was still usually empty, and Neville and Ginny took full advantage, duelling together well into the evenings.

They had each thought of several strategies to deal with their blindness, but had by mutual agreement decided to keep them quiet, and spent their time duelling normally, or in low light.

They did, before the Third Task, take some of the potion from McGonagall and practice moving and aiming spells at dummies provided by the Room. But their duel would still be an unknown quantity.

 

‘Who do you think will win the Tournament?’ Neville asked Hermione, one Sunday night in March. Harry had shown up, but he and Ron had gone out flying together, and Ginny had opted to get several extra hours sleep tonight, then get up early and put in some last minute training, so it was just the two of them in their corner of the Common Room.

‘I don’t know why you aren’t asking Ron, to be honest,’ Hermione said at first, but then she thought over what she had seen from the Champions. ‘Maria and Alexandria are obviously winning right now, but one of the things they’ve got going for them is that they work well together, you know? I know you work well with Ginny, because you had to last year, when we went away…’ Hermione paused, and the apologies that she, Harry and Ron had made to Neville, Ginny and Luna hung in the air for a moment. ‘But you are strong on your own as well, both of you. And the Beauxbatons two are doing the worst at the moment, but they might surprise us when they don’t have to try to get along together. I don’t know, but I’d say, on the way the points lean, I am expecting both you and Ginny in the Final.’

Neville smiled, and thanked her. ‘I wanted to be confident,’ he explained, ‘but I hated the idea of being wrong. And you’ve always helped when I needed it.’ Briefly, they both thought about the corrections and suggestions made to Neville’s homework, not publically the way Hermione had chastised Harry and Ron for being lazy, but quietly, supportively.

‘You know,’ Neville said after a moment, ‘I never thought I’d have as many friends, leaving Hogwarts, as I do now.’

‘Me neither,’ Hermione told him honestly. ‘And the best bit is, I know we’re all going to keep in touch, wherever we go – are you still thinking about that Herbology college course in Holland?’

Neville hesitated. ‘Well –’ he began, and then looked around. It was late, the Common Room had emptied while they talked. ‘You could keep this secret, right? Even from Ron, and Ginny and Luna?’

‘Harry knows?’ Hermione confirmed.

‘Harry knows,’ Neville agreed. ‘The thing is, you know Remus and Tonks had a son? I’ve been helping to look after him.’

‘That’s where you’ve been going at weekends!’ Hermione realised. ‘I knew there was a son – Teddy, I think Harry said he was called, but I’ll be honest I hadn’t thought about it much. I know witches are expected to have children soon out of Hogwarts, but I certainly don’t plan to. I’ve talked to Ron about it.’

Neville smiled, he had expected such tradition breaking from Hermione.

‘But anyway,’ he continued, ‘yes, I’ve been with him at weekends. Andromeda, Tonks’ mother and the only family Teddy has now, was always friends with my gran, ever since she helped Andy to escape the Blacks as a teenager. So my gran has been staying over at hers, and Harry goes over during the week, but even then, a young Metamorphmagus is a handful. So I’ve been there at the weekends, and I’m absolutely smitten.’ He shared a smile with Hermione. ‘But it does leave me at something of a loose end regarding my plans for next year. I’m not sure I can go away.’

‘You can’t sacrifice your future for this, though,’ Hermione said firmly. ‘It wouldn’t be right, and I’m sure your gran wouldn’t stand for it.’ Hermione had never met Augusta Longbottom, but Harry had, and Ron had recounted tales heard from his dad.

‘I’m not going to,’ Neville reassured her. ‘But life does things, and different paths open up, you know? And I’m thinking about teaching, now. There’s a college in London, where I could commute easily, and it has a great greenhouse complex. I’d still be – what do Muggles say? – following my dream.’

Hermione congratulated him, and promised to keep it a secret.

‘Though I probably will tell Ron and Ginny and Luna fairly soon, but I just wanted to, I mean, you’ve always given good advice,’ Neville said.

‘Thank you,’ Hermione said.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

‘Will you accept some advice in return?’ Neville asked, and now he looked nervous. ‘You probably don’t want to hear it, but I think I need to say it.’

‘Go ahead. I promise not to be offended.’

‘Well.’ Neville breathed heavily. ‘It’s just that – and I don’t mean to imply that you haven’t, but – have you ever asked a pureblood couple what marriage is like in the Wizarding World?’

‘What? Um, no.’ Hermione had no idea where this was going, but she hadn’t.

‘It’s just, you know as a Pureblood I’ve had to learn all this stuff but I don’t know how strict Ron’s father is and he isn’t an Heir anyway, so he might not know it all and he might not realise what he assumes you know. And I wanted to make sure that you were prepared, because Pureblood men tend to propose before they’re twenty, and I was talking to Harry and he says Muggles don’t think that way, we were talking about Ginny, you know, Ron asked me to make sure he was going to “treat her right” but didn’t want to do it himself, um, where was I? Anyway, I thought it would be fair to warn you that there is apparently a lot of cultural difference here, and the contracts themselves – just don’t mention the “d” word, okay? And the contracts do favour males and they do favour Purebloods but I know Ron would never take advantage of that. It’s what he doesn’t realise he’s taking advantage of that I wanted to make you aware of.’

Neville got his little speech out in a rush, and then sat back and looked, rather nervously, at his friend. She might think he was being too presumptuous, interfering in her relationship, and he suddenly went red as he remembered that he had asked her to the Yule Ball – not for romantic reasons, but still.

Hermione sat in silence for a minute, working through it.

‘Thank you for telling me,’ she said eventually, in an odd voice. ‘The “d” word, that’s divorce, right?’

‘Um, yeah,’ Neville said awkwardly. ‘I’m not kidding; we’re not supposed to say the word. We’re not supposed to say “gay” though, either.’

‘What, in case it makes you gay? Is the Wizarding World that homophobic?’

‘It’s not the most accepting. I mean, everyone knows that there’s nothing wrong with it, but we all have to pretend that it’s this terrible thing, and keep it a secret. Like, everyone knew that Dumbledore was gay, right? But we weren’t allowed to mention it, and then Harry told me that he didn’t know. And that’s Harry! He was really close to Dumbledore, I thought he’d have known. But apparently not.’

‘I didn’t know,’ Hermione said. ‘There’s nothing about it in any of the books, not even Rita Skeeter’s.’

Neville looked oddly at her. ‘You weren’t looking for it,’ he said. ‘That whole bit about Grindelwald was exaggerated, because she was trying to make out that Dumbledore had a crush on the enemy, and so couldn’t be trusted. And she’d never have got the book in print if she’d mentioned that Dumbledore had a boyfriend.’

 

‘Dumbledore had a boyfriend?’ Hermione exclaimed, and it was at that moment that Harry and Ron walked into the Common Room. Their reactions were markedly different; Harry raised his eyebrows, Ron recoiled in horror.

‘What are you talking about?’ he asked, sounding terrified of the answer. ‘Neville, you should know better.’

‘Ron, don’t be an asshole,’ Hermione said. ‘And if you think that it’s not okay for two people of the same gender to be in love, then you need to think about why.’

Ron gaped. ‘It’s – I,’ he stuttered, and then dropped his voice below a whisper. ‘It’s okay, but you don’t talk about it. If my parents knew –’ he began, and then pressed a hand over his mouth and ran up the stairs.

Hermione sighed. ‘I’ll talk to him. Sounds like he’s not thinking through his leant prejudice.’

‘Don’t be too harsh on him, from the sound of that,’ Harry advised. ‘But you could consider mentioning to him that I’m, er, bisexual.’

‘Congratulations,’ Hermione said automatically. ‘Oh, I won’t be mean, But Krum, and when he left us, and now this. He’s getting better at thinking for himself, but it’s still not that well ingrained. And sooner or later he’s going to hurt someone.’ She stopped, and looked between the two men. ‘And it’s going to be one of us.’ She walked up the stairs after Ron, and Neville shot her a nervous look.

‘I might sleep out here tonight,’ he said, only half joking, and then gestured for Harry to sit down. ‘So, bi? I thought you might be.’

‘Yeah, I mean that’s who I am, right? I told Ginny, and she helped me look up all this stuff; apparently there’s a sort of underground thing where witches and wizards who are, um, queer can find people to talk to and stuff.’

Neville smiled. ‘Good. I knew there would be something like that. I’ve never myself, of course, but I’m glad there is something to help people who need it. I just think the world would be better if people could acknowledge what was going on openly.’

‘You and me both, Neville,’ Harry said. ‘But I’d better be going, ‘cause I said I’d take Teddy tonight and I’ve got an early start tomorrow. Good luck on the duelling,’ he added as he got up, ‘and if it helps, remember that your first duel will be your hardest. If you beat Ginny, and I don’t know if you will, you’ll find the rest easy going. But I didn’t actually say that.’

‘I heard nothing, O unbiased judge,’ Neville said, laughing.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

As the current Tournament leaders, Maria and Alexandria were given first chance at going first. They declined, and so did Neville and Ginny.

So Christophe and Gabrielle took, not unhappily, to the stage, and waited patiently while the antidotes that would restore sight to them were placed at the ends of the duelling platform. The potions were administered, and after three long minutes the duel began.

It was over in a minute. Gabrielle began shooting Stunners immediately, but her aim was terrible. Christophe, meanwhile, listened to where her voice was before aiming, and took her out with his third Petrificus Totalus spell.

After Gabrielle had been Enervated, and the antidotes had been administered, the judges gave Christophe 19 out of 25; a respectable score. Gabrielle, of course, got only 5.

 

Maria and Alexandria opted to go next. When they were given the signal, each stepped to their right and dropped to the floor, from where they crawled silently and hastily along the platform. Alexandria got to the other end a few seconds before her twin, and swallowed her potion quickly. Her first Stunner reached Maria just as she was reaching for her own antidote.

After some deliberation from the judges, she received only 10 points for that effort, while Maria collected the proscribed 5.

Then it was time for Neville and Ginny to fight. They moved to each end, and waited patiently for the potion to take effect. They now had three minutes before the duel began. Ginny shrugged out of her robes, leaving her in Muggle-style clothes spelled not to make a noise. Neville dug around in his robes, finally taking a handful of Knuts from his pocket.

‘Begin!’

Twin shouts of ‘Protego!’ were heard, and then both Gryffindors began silently casting. Neville turned his money into hundreds of little bells, while Ginny enchanted her robes. A moment later, the robes stood upright by themselves, and her voice shouted ‘Stupefy!’ from them. She crouched down beside them, planning to listen for Neville’s approach.

But what she heard instead was the noise of a hundred little bells flung into the air at once, and under cover of that noise Neville ran along the platform. He began dodging “Ginny’s” spells, and silently sending back his own, while Ginny herself crawled quickly to her antidote. Before she could reach it she heard her robes suddenly cut off, and knew Neville had realised what was going on. She hastily drunk, and heard from behind her the quiet noise that meant Neville was doing the same thing.

She Disillusioned herself as she drank, and whirled around and crouched down behind the small table. Her sight returned, and she saw hundreds of bells, her robes in a crumpled heap, and no Neville. A long line of fire shot towards her, and she Vanished it before it could flare against her shield and give her position away. She sent her own back, and followed it with a wind that would sweep all the bells towards Neville’s end. That should soon reveal his position, unless he was on the table…

Ginny considered the table by her own side for a split second, and was on it the second after that, balancing delicately beside the cauldron. She sent another blast of wind, and the bells rolled across the floor – there! Neville was coming down to his right. Ginny sent a couple of Body-Binding curses towards him, for they had an arc that would disguise her position.

Neville dodged a pair of curses, hopping over some bells and banishing others along the platform, trusting in their sound to conceal whatever noise he was making. They had been duelling now for more time than the other two duels combined, and he wondered briefly what the audience was making of their invisible duel. But distraction was a bad habit during a fight, and Neville turned his attention back to the spells he was casting almost without conscious direction. He was targeting to both sides of Ginny’s potion, since he wasn’t quite sure where she was, but would hopefully spot her soon. If only Apparition was permitted in this duel!

Ginny was wishing the same thing. She was feeling rather precarious, and would have appreciated the chance to stand on firmer feet. On the other hand, she wasn’t having to dodge any of Neville’s spells, and so could concentrate fully on searching for him, watching the way the bells moved. He was definitely coming towards her.

One of her Body-Binds finally got lucky, slipping through a hole in his shields, and Neville fell to the floor, his wand becoming visible as it slipped from his hand. Ginny moved cautiously towards him, and took his wand. She made him visible first, then herself, and finally cast the counter-curse to the applause of the students.

The judges talked excitedly among themselves, and gave Ginny a full twenty five points.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

The second day of the Task began with Alexandria losing her duel to Christophe, in a somewhat reasonable three minutes and nineteen seconds – the time it took for Christophe to trip over Alexandria, literally, and stun her. Neither of them seemed comfortable moving around the stage while blind, although Alexandria had been doing better. Christophe received 11 points from the judges.

There was a short break, and then Neville and Maria took to the stage. They took their positions, and Neville silently Disillusioned himself the moment Maria lost her sight. She just stood there for the three minutes “adjustment time” they received.

The signal was given, and Neville cast one of Hermione’s favourite spells – birds filled the air, and their chirping filled Maria’s ears. She hastily dropped to the platform floor to avoid the attack she expected to follow, and was instead confused when nothing seemed to happen. One by one the birds stopped calling, as the magic sustaining them ran out, and complete silence descended upon the German girl. (The duelling platform, of course, was surrounded with silencing spells. The crowd was plenty loud outside of them.) The quiet pressed in on her ears, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Maria decided to risk moving. She never even heard Neville cast the Stunner that hit her.

After that, Ginny’s twenty-three second defeat of Gabrielle was almost anti-climactic. A high-powered concussion charm caused the French Champion to scream, and the Stunner got her before she thought to move. Ginny and Neville both came out of the day high on marks, and jumped right back up the books as favourites to take first and second place. (The odds said Neville would eventually win. Harry had bet on Ginny even before the names were drawn, impartiality be damned.)

 

Alexandria was shaking before she was even blinded at the thought of beginning the third day by facing off against Neville Longbottom. The skill and confidence the twins from Durmstrang had shown in the first two tasks together was entirely gone now that they were working separately. Neville defeated Alexandria as easily as he had her sister, receiving a similarly average score for the accomplishment.

Then it was Ginny’s turn, and she was up against Christophe. He made a great effort, managing to dodge Ginny’s spells despite his blindness, but when she reached her antidote it was all over for him. She was now well into the lead on points, while Neville was at least much closer behind her than the others. The day finished with Gabrielle’s easy win against Maria, and then it was onto the next day.

 

On the fourth day, Christophe scored well again after defeating Maria, and was beginning to catch up to Neville. It was still looking very likely that there would be a Hogwarts victory, however, so neither of the Hogwarts Champions got too worried about it.

 

Gabrielle had only won her first victory the day before, so Neville felt a little guilty about how easily he had heard and Stunned her, but only a little. She just wasn’t one for duelling, any more than the twins were.

Speaking of which, Alexandria almost made it down the entire platform before Ginny knocked her unconscious, so compared to some of her earlier efforts she had improved. But still, she was low enough on points that it did not matter much anymore.

 

The first duel of day five was perhaps the one that mattered most, at least statistically in Tournament terms. Maria was definitely out of the final task, however if she won this duel, and Christophe and Gabrielle both won with enough points, it was still possible for Ginny to be out of the top three and out of the Tournament.

However, neither the Champions nor the audience believed such an outcome possible from the duel, and of course it then did not occur. Maria was stunned before she had taken three steps and before Ginny had even been bothered to move. And thus were the three competitors for the final task set in stone.

 

Alexandria knew she had lost the Tournament, as had both her sister and her opponent for today’s duel, Gabrielle, but her pride would not allow her to surrender at once, and she fought her longest and best duel of the week before eventually losing to the French girl, who had clearly been practising her aim.

 

The final duel of the third task was expected to be anticlimactic, as whoever the winner, both participants knew they were through to the Final Task. But they did not know what bonuses might be granted, or what starting positions might be unequal and, in any case, both were wizards who duelled to win. So when, after several minutes of expert duelling, Christophe acquired his antidote, a Disillusioned Neville heard the noise and spun silently towards it from halfway down the platform, preparing. For it is an interesting fact that while in the dark, a person will be able to hear significantly better.

And the corollary of that is that a person newly returned to sight will make more noise. Christophe was down in seconds, and Neville received the second highest individual score of the task at twenty-four points out of twenty-five from the judges.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

Ginny trudged back up to the Common Room, and gave the Fat Lady the password before climbing in.

‘It’s the night before the Final Task – shouldn’t you be in bed already?’ Harry asked in mock-surprise. Of course Ginny was stressing out, and of course she’d gone to practice in the Room of Requirement for a bit.

‘Harry!’ she said, mood at least a little improved. ‘I thought you couldn’t get away – where are the others?’

‘They went to bed,’ Harry said, ‘and I volunteered to wait up for you.’ Ginny’s eyes went to the clock on the mantelpiece, and she realised it was later than she’d thought.

‘Sorry,’ she said, and then, too tired to filter, ‘you know, we should talk.’

The smile faded from Harry’s face a little.

‘I know we should,’ he said. ‘It’s not working, is it?’

Ginny sighed. ‘I don’t think so. We’re trying, but I think we want different things from each other.’

‘I do love you,’ Harry said. ‘I can cope with the fact that you’re in love with Luna, but if you can’t –’

‘I’m not in love with Luna!’ Ginny interrupted.

‘You kind of are,’ Harry said simply. ‘And despite Rolf, and whatever’s going on there, she likes you too. But that’s got no bearing on our relationship, really. What matters is that you don’t actually want the sort of relationship I do.’

‘I… guess you’re right. I love you, though.’

‘Yeah, me too. One last kiss?’

Ginny shook her head. ‘Better not.’ So they hugged, and if Harry teared up a little then Ginny was hardly going to tell anyone. It wasn’t every day you broke up with one of your best friends.

 

The day of the Final Task dawned bright and cheerful, and Neville, Ginny and Christophe assembled in the centre of the incredibly modified Great Hall. It had been enlarged overnight to several times its usual size, and the entire school, along with the same number again of guests, it seemed, was sat around the edges of the room. In the centre, there was a long, twisting maze, which seemed to defy the laws of physics to be as complicated as it was. In fact, Harry had taken great pride in pointing out that they could use lowered and raised floors to make the maze more difficult to navigate, and indeed in some places the paths crossed over one another, without a single step along the way.

But before the Champions could enter the maze, which from their vantage point they could see none of, their wands were taken from them. Harry, smiling, led them to three doors that had formed in the side of the Hall.

‘Behind each of these doors is a Boggart, and behind each Boggart you will find another door. Through those doors I will place each of your wands. You may choose to enter the maze immediately, or to attempt to retrieve your wand first,’ Harry explained quietly, while Kingsley gave the same information to the crowd with a Sonorous charm. Harry counted down from five, and the Task began.

Christophe, trusting to his good sense of direction, and assuming that this would take the form of a race, sprinted straight for the entrance to the maze. Ginny and Neville watched him go, then wished each other luck and opened their doors.

Neither of them ever talked about what they found in there, wandlessly facing down Boggarts, and so I can give no commentary but Ron’s.

‘Hermione,’ he muttered, quietly enough that no one but her could overhear, ‘I don’t suppose you’re up for helping me break into the Infirmary tonight?’

‘Why? Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine, yeah. But – Dreamless Sleep. She’s going to need some,’ Ron said, voice strangled, and Hermione remembered his confession that after their second year, Ginny had slept in his room most nights that summer.

‘We should offer some to Neville, too,’ Ron added. ‘I mean, there’s no way he’s facing down Snape right now.’

Hermione agreed.

Eventually, Neville made it out from his door, wand clutched in his raised fist, and received a deafening cheer. Christophe was already deep into the maze, but without his wand was becoming lost, and kept stopping to second guess himself.

Neville went into the maze, and just as he did so Ginny appeared from her door, raising her wand as Neville had and jogging across the room to cheers. Only her closest friends picked up the pained look in her eyes, and Ron muttered to Hermione that she’d better not leave Ginny alone that night.


	20. Chapter Twenty

Neville and Ginny drew up short as they came face to face with each other in the centre of the maze. Each other – and no Cup. Carefully, they each pointed their wands down in a more relaxed manner.

‘They’ve hidden it, then?’ Ginny asked rhetorically.

‘We did discuss the possibility,’ Neville reminded her, and the two shared a smile, before reaching out to clasp left hands. On a count of three they performed a combined Summoning Charm - and the crowd, which had been cheering, became deadly silent. Were they planning to work together? A joint victory? That was illegal, under the new rules, and the attempt would automatically forfeit the Cup to Christophe, who even now was coming round in the medical tent.

But no, they were not planning to attempt joint victory. After Accio failed, the pair tried other, more obscure searching spells, still in tandem, and finally one such charm revealed the ghostly shape of the Cup, suspended in the air several feet above their heads by what further spells declared to be merely non magical ropes.

‘Two of them,’ Ginny pointed out, breaking the silence that had held both inside and out of the maze’s sound charms for a while. Neville turned to face her, and they took five paces back away from each other.

[‘This is more formalised than a duel,’ Hermione whispered in admiration.

‘Yeah, Ginny’s always been a bit like that, and Neville’s got to be, Pureblood Heir and all,’ Ron agreed. ‘But shush, I can’t decide who I should be rooting for.’]

Together, they counted down from seven to one, and on one both lifted their wands and magically took control of one of the two ropes holding the Cup in the air. Then, when they were sure their magic was strong, they began to attack the other’s rope.

This was proper magical duelling, not something taught at Hogwarts. Raw magic soared through the air, in addition to the more expected cutting hexes and overpowered banishing charms. It was impossible to tell who was winning, since over the first twenty minutes or so both Ginny and Neville swung between joyful grinning and determined frowning.

But by the half-hour mark, Neville’s scowl seemed permanently etched into his face, and after another five minutes his rope turned into a cardboard cut-out of a bat, which then dissolved into a hundred tiny black butterflies before disappearing. The other rope, under Ginny’s direction, quickly lengthened until it dropped the Cup’s handle into her outstretched hand.

The moment it touched her skin, the protective sound barriers dropped, followed a moment later by the walls of the maze, and the noise became deafening. Neville bowed low to Ginny, but did not seek to get closer, instead taking himself over to Madam Pomfrey. Most of the students stayed in their seats, or rather stood on their seats, cheering the amazing magical display but not trying to get down onto the floor. Harry, Hermione and Ron, however, were all fighting through to be the first to congratulate their friend.

Before any of them could get there, however, a small, blonde figure had leapt out from the front rows of visitors, run to the centre of the hall, and thrown herself onto Ginny with a passionate kiss.

‘Um,’ Ron said.

Hermione just shrugged, and then turned to Harry.

‘You didn’t tell me Luna was coming over,’ she accused. ‘And don’t try and tell me you didn’t know.’

‘I didn’t know!’ he protested. ‘Not until five minutes before, anyway. It was far too late to tell you then. Anyway, I thought she’d want to handle her own reintroductions, since she had a new boyfriend. But, well…’ and he gestured helplessly to the continuing embrace between the two girls, which had long since passed from “heat of the moment” to “I want to spend my life kissing you”.

Ron had finally processed what was going on.

‘Hang on, is my sister gay?’ he asked.

‘Don’t be silly, Ron, she only broke up with Harry last night. The word you’re looking for is probably bisexual,’ Hermione corrected.

‘Fine,’ Ron said. ‘Wait, she broke up with – why am I the last to know everything?’

‘Hey, how did you know that, Hermione?’ Harry asked. ‘Because I’m pretty sure Ginny said she wasn’t going to tell anyone.’

‘Oh, Harry, I always know these things about you. But, look, Luna’s stepping back. Now is the time to congratulate Ginny on winning the Tournament. Later, when the press aren’t around, we can gossip about her sexuality and everyone’s relationship statuses with impunity.’

‘You are so wise, Hermione,’ Ron said, and he crossed the floor and hugged his sister tightly. ‘Well done, sis. I knew you could do it.’

‘No you didn’t,’ Ginny laughed, ‘you thought Neville would beat me.’ But it was clear from her tone that she didn’t mind that.

‘Well, I put money on you,’ Harry said, and put his arms around her quickly, before moving aside for Hermione.

‘Well done,’ she told Ginny. ‘Now, Pepper Pumpkin?’

She handed the Tournament winner a little pumpkin sweet; one of George’s inventions, it worked like a mild Pepper-up Potion, and would hopefully keep Ginny on her feet through the next few hours of press interviewing.

But first she had to face the crowds, and take bow after bow as they applauded for her. Then she was checked over in the medical tent, where the more ambitious and more thorough journalists were already waiting, having talked to Christophe and begun to interview Neville already.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

It was six hours later, nearly midnight, before Ginny could make her way to her favourite armchair in the Gryffindor Common Room, after most of the House had finally been persuaded to stop partying with the reminder of exams the next week, and only Hermione, Ron and Neville remained with her. At that point, Harry came through the portrait, Marauder’s Map in one hand, and empty space following him.

Under the Cloak, of course, he had brought both Luna and Rolf by to visit, sneaking them through the halls and even past the Headmistress. (Of course, Harry didn’t think he’d gotten away with it, but it was better to let Rolf think he did, lest he start worrying unnecessarily.)

Luna gave all of her friends exuberant hugs, and then turned to beckon Rolf over from where he hovered nervously by the door.

‘Everyone,’ she pronounced deliberately, ‘this is Rolf, my fiancé. You’re going to like him.’

‘If you say so, Luna,’ Hermione said cheerfully. ‘Hi Rolf.’ She stood up and shook hands with him, introducing herself. The others followed her lead, allowing Luna to look around the Common Room.

‘You know,’ she confided to Harry, dreamy quality more present in her voice than before, ‘I always thought there would be more gold in the Gryffindor Common Room. For the atmosphere, you know?’

Harry shrugged. ‘We just liked the red, I suppose. But I know what you mean – Ravenclaw was full of bronze, wasn’t it?’

‘Academics like to come second or third,’ Rolf said, taking a seat between Luna and Ginny. ‘It means there’s something to learn still. Life would be very boring if there was nothing left to learn.’

‘I quite agree!’ Hermione exclaimed, and Harry and Ron exploded with laughter.

‘You have to admit it’s a little funny to hear you say that,’ Neville agreed, ‘since you have been top of just about every class you’ve ever taken.’

Hermione could make no response, though she seemed more amused than offended, and after a moment Rolf turned to Ginny.

‘I wish to congratulate you on your spells earlier, I was very impressed,’ he said. ‘And also, a request; could you possibly teach me the fourth revealing charm you used? It was unfamiliar to me, and it looked rather useful.’

‘Sure,’ Ginny said easily. ‘I couldn’t so much as reveal my own nose right now, but over the summer some time? I’m sure we’ll be meeting up.’

She looked past him to Luna, who was still surveying the walls with a slight frown, but it disappeared almost at once as she agreed vaguely.

‘We will be in England for three – no, two and a half months,’ Rolf told them. My grandfather would like us in Greece for the last week of August, as the secret temples, the ones that may not be there, must be explored in daylight hours. But during the tourist months one can get around easier than three.’

‘That’s good to hear,’ said Harry. ‘The Auror training program takes a good two months off in the summer, so we’ll all be perhaps at a bit of a loose end. I have got the Manor to sort out, of course.’

‘We said we’d help you with that,’ Ron reminded him. The Purebloods, especially, were aware of just how much work there was to open up a family Manor without the help of the people who shut it down in the first place; in this case, Harry’s grandparents.

Conversation died down, then, and the seven of them watched the fire in comfortable silence for a while, before eventually getting off to bed.


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

The next week was exam week, so Harry made himself scarce, as did Luna and Rolf. Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville each fought through NEWTs, and, well, Ron summed it up best.

‘I’d almost rather fight a Death Eater than take another theory exam,’ he groaned, on the Thursday night. ‘Thank Merlin there’s only practicals left.’

‘You’ve only got practicals left,’ Hermione said. ‘Now shush, if I don’t know all four hundred and eight of these runes by nine tomorrow morning I won’t get an Outstanding.’

‘I know where I’m not wanted,’ Ron answered, ‘so I’m for bed.’

‘Oh, come here and spend twenty minutes testing me on these charms,’ Ginny begged. ‘I swear my eyes will be permanently damaged if I keep trying to read tonight.’

‘Fine,’ Ron said, taking the book. ‘Fold something in half?’

‘Foldere.’

‘Reveal hidden people?’

‘Hominim Revelio.’

After about ten minutes, something occurred to Ron. ‘Hey, don’t you normally study with Neville? Where’s he tonight?’

Ginny looked guilty as, beside them, Hermione pricked up her ears.

‘He’s… busy,’ she said vaguely. ‘Oh, you know I can’t lie for toffee to you, Ron. But he asked me not to tell, sorry. He’ll be back by midnight.’

‘Like Cinderella,’ Hermione joked, then rolled her eyes when the Weasleys just looked confused. ‘Muggle thing,’ she explained. ‘Cinderella has to be back by midnight or the spell will wear off and her clothes will turn to rags again.’

‘Whatever you say,’ Ron said, completely used by now to the way Muggle cultural references made absolutely no sense to him.

 

And all of their hard work paid off. Ginny, Ron and Neville each left with brilliant results, and Hermione with a new school record, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

 

‘Well, this is it,’ Hermione said, relaxing into the seat of the train. ‘We’ve officially finished our education, and now we can go off into the world and do… well, whatever we want.’

‘You sound like you’ve got something in mind,’ Ron told her. ‘Aren’t we going to basically spend the next two months living with Harry?’

‘Hmm. Yes. I kind of wanted to talk to you about that. And about our… relationship.’

It was a measure of how Ron had matured in the last few years that he had seen this coming.

‘We’re not working as well as we used to,’ he said. ‘Got it. Do you think we need to, I dunno, break up?’

‘I don’t want to break up,’ Hermione answered immediately.

‘Good,’ Ron said, after a pause. ‘I mean, I don’t want to either. What’s option two?’

‘I don’t have all the answers. But, um, I wrote to my parents last night. I’m going home for a few weeks, first. Harry won’t mind, will he?’

‘He’ll forgive you,’ Ron said with certainty. ‘He forgave me, and what I’ve done over the years has been much worse.’

‘Okay,’ Hermione said. ‘Okay. I’ll come over later in the summer, then. I just need to – everyone knows what they’re going to do, even if Neville is being all mysterious about it, and I have no idea – I just need to do some figuring out. But write to me, okay? If Harry can get a phone line into this Manor of his, I’ll call you too.’

‘Every day?’ Ron asked.

‘Every day,’ Hermione promised. ‘I love you. It’ll all work out, I’m sure.’

The End


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